ernmental policy of every republic on the Western Hemisphere. To still the warring elements and to mould the disturbed commonwealths into models of good government, will surely need the wisest exercise of the genius of our citizenship. With this era upon us, with an opportunity and desire to consummate these exalted ideals of our civilization, in comparison how insignificant and inglorious have been the aims of other nations in their dealings with the peoples of the world-Egypt for war, Venice for trade, Rome for power, and France for military glory.

As we contemplate this epoch, this grasping of the lintels of the globe in the hands of the American civilization, it seems that the vision goes beyond the ken of mortal man. Not since the Great Navigator turned his eyes westward upon our land has there occurred an era with greater power to affect mankind. Here is the broadest civilization of the most powerful and virile people on earth, impelled by forces beyond our comprehension, pouring its life upon the teeming millions of the East. In this solemn hour, when you are booted and spurred and ready to face this crisis in your country's life and this epoch in the world's history, I implore you to cherish in your inmost heart the true ideals of the Republic. Here, on this hallowed soil, where the mountains first grew radiant with the flame of our country's shrine, I call to your mind the traditions of our land. I pray that as your eyes look upon the nations you may not alone see

the gold and silver and the trappings of material power, and that the hands lifted for truth and light may not be heeded for the flash of the encircling jewel. Holding close to your hearts the traditions of freedom, of right and justice, of the rule of the people under the same law for rich and poor, empires will be shaken, despotism will be dethroned, and justice will be meted out with even hands to the nations of the East. As you stand here with your faces brightened by the radiance of the lands near the rising sun, I would swear you to cling to these principles by an oath more solemn than any ever breathed by grayclad pilgrim, staff in hand, impatient to walk in the life scenes of the Blessed Master. It was for him alone to bow at a broken tomb and touch with reverent lips a dismantled shrine where the breath of years had winnowed away all save the spirit of other times. With you it is to deal with life and the living, with those who reap and SOW; and if you are true to our country's ideals, this era will work out for the world a civilization "beyond which God's divinest secrets lie."

Is there needed more than my rude limnings of the bare outlines of your transcendent duties in this era to nerve you to the grasping of that high intelligence which will enable you and your country to successfully accomplish the work which in God's own good time has been made so ready for your hands in other lands and other climes?

When we view our own land, the changes wrought

by the era of commerce in our material life are even more far-reaching and important in their enduring effect upon our civic life. The colossal combinations, revolutionizing the conditions of our commercial being and absolutely starting the very foundations of our country's life; the growth of enormous fortunes denied to kings, enabling their corporate or individual possessors to touch at will every concern in the life of the people; the unparalleled growth of dependence upon material power necessarily resulting therefrom, whilst strengthening the hands of this republic in its majestic march to the material supremacy of the world, yet have brought the people of our country face to face with the most important era, excepting one, which has touched life within the last half century of its existence.

And here I will be pardoned for the assertion of another truism of political history. It is this-that whilst in the lifetime of every historic people there may appear important eras or cycles, they are often adventitious, that is, they appear in one people and may not appear in another; yet, sure as the return of the flowers of springtime, in the history of every historic people there has appeared the era of commercialism and material power, and its ultimate effect has been hurtful to the country's real inner life. whether this is cause or effect. the inexorable law of nations. arrived at a great height of material splendor and power, its commercial era, it has first paused, then

I do not here discuss
I found my fears on
When a nation has

halted, and ere long has fallen aside and listened to the feet of newer peoples beating on the path the music of the oft-recurring cycle. A general deduction from the examples of history may be unscientific, for every conclusion must have its logical premises; yet on the unwinding of the scroll of human affairs, this commercial epoch has always left the nation showing the decay of those splendid moral and mental virtues which made it historic.

I will be pardoned here for a digression in order that I may be clearly understood. We would not arrest the march of the material glory of this era. This people has never faltered when meeting a crisis in its affairs. No hand should curb the legitimate power of the day. He who would seek by legislation or political effect to impair the rightful progress of material power is an enemy of the Republic. We of the South, surrounded by an empire of material wealth such as graces no other portion of the land, would be doubly recreant to our country did we not fashion it into life and power. Under our bright sun, we would create that wealth of material splendor which would hide under its glory all of our sorrows and tears, yet we would hallow its life and power with that elevation of thought and nobleness of purpose which would be more potent to mankind than the proudest monument ever erected to material power.

To resume, I do not believe that the citizens of this Republic are losing their love for the principles which

have given to us conditions of happiness unsurpassed by any country or in any age. These great principles of government unmistakably show their living influence in the life which is widening and broadening the sphere of our commercial and civic existence. With me, there is no pessimism as to the future of the Republic; but the conditions of the day bear with them the inevitable consequence, that as a nation gathers great material power it naturally looks to its influence for safety rather than to the virtue, patriotism, and high character of the citizen, which are the walls of defense of a truly historic and epoch-making people.

A government of the people is the most difficult to keep straight and true on its course; and unless the people, the final repository of all the power, hold firmly to the true underlying principles of citizenship the real glory of a country must surely decay. This government was not founded on the paramount idea of trade and commerce; yet the wisdom of the Fathers recognized that these questions were most important to the new government. They thundered against the King their anathema "for cutting off trade with all parts of the world." Whilst the contest for liberty in England universally arose over the question of taxation, it was, however, a minor portion of the structural scheme of our governmental policy, and was adverted to because the acts complained of constituted an interference with the liberties and personal rights of our people, which they were determined to fully and completely establish.